Bella's Decision to Move to Forks
by nightcandle327
Summary: How Bella reached the decision to go and live with Charlie in Forks. My first fan fiction. Reviews welcome.


This is the first fan fic I have ever written and details how Bella came to the decision to move to Forks. Any reviews are really appreciated as I hope to produce more fan fiction in the new year!

Disclaimer: All characters, their world and any recognisable background information belongs to Stephanie Meyer.

"You'll never guess what honey, Phil got signed!"

My mother had burst enthusiastically into my room, a whirlwind of activity, keen to share her news. Phil being signed was actually something of a semi regular occurrence. Mostly because my mom's husband rarely landed a baseball contract longer than a year. But he did make her happy despite the frequent distance between them and his job did pay the bills. Phil grounded my mom in a way I was initially shocked by given he was many years their junior. So I tried my best to inject as much excitement as possible into my tone. "That's wonderful mom, whereabouts is he heading this time?" Her expression dropped slightly and I realised that's the question she didn't want me to ask. "Well… he is going to be in Florida. But he will be playing major league and that's always been his dream." I carefully controlled my response, "I'm really happy for him mom, I'm sure the time will pass quickly." She brightened straight away. Renee was like a child in many ways, her train of thought was easily derailed. "Thank you Bella, we are going out tonight for dinner to celebrate." Well there goes my plans of hitting the town, I thought sarcastically to myself, as Renee bounded out the same way she came in.

When the door closed behind I stood up from my slightly cluttered desk which had novels piled precariously and flumped down on my bed. My room was decent sized I contemplated as I sank into the sky blue sheets and stared out of the large window along the back of my bedroom. It wasn't entirely shocking that Phil had got signed out of state. Again. There was no way he could turn down a major league contract either. I was genuinely happy for him, but I worried about Renee. Her husband had been home for six months and she had visibly brightened with him around. It calmed me to see her like that. Not to mention she (rarely) ran out of gas and needed me to collect her anymore, or forgot to pay her bills. Another year with being apart would hit her hard. Despite her excitement on his behalf I suspected she was already dreading him leaving. It would be easier when I was at college I mused. Then she would be free to go wherever Phil was. Two years was a long time. I continued to mull this over, dozing on and off to the white noise of the AC buzzing in the background.

I was woken with a sharp tap on my bedroom door that jolted me out of sleep. "Bells? You ready?" Phil's booming voice startled me into action and I jumped up quickly, almost falling flat on my face over the pale cream rug that lined my floor. I threw the door open and there stood Phil, all 6"4 of him, waiting patiently for me and presumably Renee. "I'm so sorry Phil, I must have fallen asleep". "No problem, your mom will be at least an hour anyways, just seeing if you were all set." He rolled his eyes in an affectionate way at Renee's usual disorganisation. "I'll be right out" I promised. I closed the door and opened my wardrobe. Still feeling slightly disheveled from the unintentional early evening nap, I quickly decided comfort was the objective over any little style I had. It was 80 F away from the air conditioning of the house so I pulled out a lightweight blue tank top and pair of tailored linen cream trousers. I paired it with a pair of brown leather sandals. I looked at myself in the mirror. I didn't look awful, but the lines between my eyes and across my forehead were puckered in anxious agitation. Renee flitted across my mind again and I felt a sharp wave of guilt. She was kept here for me. Yes, mom loved Phoenix but I knew without doubt she would have gone with Phil to Florida if she could. But I had to finish school. There seemed to be no compromise. I brushed out my chestnut hair attempting to focus on the task and watching the red in my hair gleam in the sun streaming through the window. Sighing in frustration I threw my little leather satchel over my shoulder and went out into the hall to wait for Renee.

Once out in the hall I sat on a wooden chair that was situated with its back against the window. The sun warmed my back and I sighed in the simple pleasure. I had always loved the light and the heat of Phoenix. If I glanced out at the usual brilliant blue sky however I could see in the distance grey clouds gathering. Not the thick blanket of never ending cloud that covered Washington state where my dad Charlie lived but still a sure sign of a storm. I thought of my dad then. Charlie was a cop who lived in a tiny town called Forks which probably had on average 50 days of sunshine per year. How the entire population of Forks wasn't vitamin D deficient was beyond me? Triggered by my thoughts of the distance between Renee and Phil I wondered for the first time in a while how he felt about me being several states away. Charlie wasn't exactly verbose so he never mentioned his feelings on the subject. We had that trait in common.

Renee was ready (eventually) and it was only a short drive from the residential area we lived in to the more commercial side of my home city. Dinner was a largely quiet affair on my part with Phil and Renee providing much of the conversation. Phil talked excitedly about his new team, his coach, where he would be living in Florida and basically everything baseball related. Every time Florida was mentioned I could see my mom's face become slightly tensed and the guilt continued to gnaw at my conscious. Once the table was cleared I regressed more and more into my own thoughts. "Bella did you hear me? It's time to go." Phil broke through my introverting, throwing his jacket on. I followed them both to the car, got in and watched the town fade into the local sprawling suburbs.

I went straight to my room when I got home. My head was beginning to hurt as it always did when I was faced with a problem I had no obvious solution to. I had always had a guilt complex and this situation with Phil was bringing it out in the extreme. I changed into some old flannel pyjamas and picked out an audio book to try and drown relax my brain. The familiar phrases and old fashioned cadences of Jane Eyre felt like an old friend and I felt some of the tension leave my shoulders as I crawled into bed.

It was dark when I awoke. Jane Eyre had clearly been successful; I didn't even remember nodding off. I checked the clock on the wall. 3 am. Then I realised what had woken me. The sharp tap-tap-tap of rain could be heard smashing into the roof, the car, my window. Just great, I sighed. I hated rain. Although to be fair, at least the rain was warm in Phoenix. During the few summers I had spent in Forks before insisting Charlie vacationed in Phoenix the rain had been so intense and heavy I felt like I would develop webbed feet before my time there was up. Thunder rumbled overhead and I rolled in my sheets, recalling the summers in Forks while drifting in an out of sleep. It could have been several minutes or hours later when it hit me: Forks. Charlie. If I moved there, I internally shuddered, I could enroll in high school and mum could go to Florida with Phil. It would be miserable and the thought of being the new girl in town made me feel vaguely sick. I'm sure Charlie would be utterly bemused as I hadn't exactly been tactful about hiding my distaste for Forks. But my mind had caught hold of the idea and more importantly Renee's delight at travelling with Phil. I also thought of how miserable she had been in the months after he left the last time. And as I turned the idea over in my head, the pit of dread at moving to Forks subtlety changed to resignation and the anxiety left my body. I knew I had found my answer.


End file.
